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Abstract

The ability to stop or override our dominant behavioral responses in face of new unexpected information is a crucial skill in daily life. Impaired response inhibition has generally been associated with several neurological conditions like attention hyperactivity disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. One particular brain area, the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), has been proposed to support such functionality. However, response inhibition has been argued to be confounded with attentional reorienting. To resolve this debate, the present study investigated whether it is possible to control the hemodynamic response in the rIFG with the use of real time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback (NF), and if successful up-regulation was associated with a measurable improvement in a response inhibition task and an attention reorienting task. 30 participants completed two days of NF training and were tested before and after on a stop-signal task (SST) and a Posner cueing task (PCT). Results showed that only men in the experimental condition had improved response inhibition efficiency but decreased attentional reorienting efficiency, suggesting gender specific effects of rt-fMRI NF training, and prompting a reevaluation of rIFG s role in attention reorienting and response inhibition. It is proposed that the rIFG is involved in neither response inhibition nor attention reorienting, but rather implementing top-down control of behavior, where response inhibition and attentional reorienting is only a few aspects.